Terminator Salvation Alternate Ending
by Andrew Fisher15
Summary: An alternate ending to Terminator Salvation, an ending more to my liking. Blair/Marcus


This is a short, alternate ending to Terminator Salvation. I personally rather disliked the characters John and Katherine Connor, finding myself caring mostly about Blair and Marcus. So, I was fairly upset when Marcus died at the ending. This is the way I wish the film had ended.

This work is a non-profit fanfiction, all credit goes to MCG, his staff, and Alan Dean Foster (Whose well-written novelization of the film has a different ending than the movie itself. I bought a copy at the store, and hope you will too).

Life's short. One day, it's gone.—Vincent

"Kate, it's gonna be alright." Barnes repeated, hugging her.

"His heart… I don't think he's going to make it." Kate said, her words twisted as her throat constricted from realization. "He might live another few hours, at most." The others—Star, Blair, Kyle, and Marcus, stood quietly, unsure of what to do.

Marcus looked down at his 'hand', at the pistons and metal fingers, where the molten titanium had burned the flesh away. You're doing something very noble… she had told him that, right after he had signed the release form giving them his body...

"Take mine." He said, the words coming out a little quietly. He repeated himself. "His heart's not going to last? Give him mine." Kate froze for a moment. A look of horror flickered across Blair's face.

"It wouldn't work." Kate said, shaking her head, tears falling. "We don't have the equipment. This setup is barely sufficient to treat a gunshot wound, much less do a heart transplant. We'd… we'd just lose another man."

"Then what do we do?" Barnes asked, voicing the question they all wanted to ask. "Command is gone. Without Connor, we don't have a leader." None of them spoke.

"They haven't…" John spoke, his formerly strong voice coming out in a wheezing cough they could barely hear. Kate walked over and knelt by him. "The men… they haven't seen me. They only heard me… over the radio…"

"They'll know your voice well enough to know if it's you." Wright said, guessing what he was about to propose. John slowly shook his head.

"Imitate my voice…" He ordered Marcus. "The T-800 could mimic voices… you probably can."

"I'm not going to lead a resistance, fooling them into thinking I'm you." Marcus refused. He held up his metal hand, where the flesh had been burned away. "And how would I explain that?"

"It'll heal, within the week." Kate said. She looked at him pleadingly. "Help us. Without a leader, we won't survive. " Marcus turned around a walked off a few steps, frustration and anger evident. Blair put a hand on his shoulder, making him pause.

"You won't be alone." She told him. His eyes met hers, the red light glowing briefly behind his human pupils. "Please, Marcus."

He tried to remember what Connor had sounded like, when he heard him over the radio. When was that? A month earlier, two months?

Last week. He reminded himself.

"You are the resistance." Marcus said, trying to sound like the officer. His voice was different—deeper, and his slight accent was gone. He focussed, trying to change it a little more. "If you're listening to this, you are the resistance." Barnes looked unnerved at the imitation. John looked satisfied.

"You're… going to have to be me." He said, his voice faint, his eyes drifting shut. "Remember… never stop fighting, Marucs… there is no fate, but… what… we make."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next day…

Marcus hesitantly lifted the microphone, unsure of what he would say. Of what John Connor would have said. Blair watched intently, sitting in a chair across the small room.

"We have dealt a powerful blow to Skynet." He said, squeezing the button on the mic. "Their operations in Western United States have been crippled by the destruction of Skynet Central in San Francisco. We haven't won yet, though. They still have other command centers around the world… but we will keep fighting, until we've destroyed them all. We will end this nightmare and reclaim our world, I promise you that." He paused for a moment. "We will one day look back at this war, read about it in history books. The millions who have died in combat, their sacrifice will not be in vain. The billions massacred by this army of machines… they will never be forgotten." He fell silent for a moment before finishing. "This is John Connor. If you're listening to this, you are the resistance." Marcus released the button and set the microphone down gently.

Blair smiled, impressed with the speech. "You did good. I'm feeling more hopeful already, along with ten thousand others."

"Good for them." He said quietly. "But this still isn't right, Blair. John Connor spent his life trying to save humanity. I spent my life ending the lives of others."

"That's the one good thing about this, about the world ending." Blair told him softly. "It doesn't matter who you were or what you did before. In this world, you can be whatever you want to be. You get a second chance to make things right."

"And what am I?" Marcus asked. He looked away, and shuffled around some of the papers John had left behind, briefly unable to look straight at her. "A heart and a brain hooked up to circuitry?" Blair got up, walked over, and crouched next to him, their faces inches apart.

"You're a good guy, Marcus." Blair said, putting a hand on his face and turning his head, making him face her. "I read once that even a child is known by his works. After what you did, back at that factory, you're known by the heroics you've carried out, and by the courage you've shown. That is nothing to be ashamed off." Neither spoke, the tension between them growing as Blair leaned closer and—

Someone pounded on the door.

"Come in." Blair said loudly, annoyance in her voice as she stood quickly, a look of disappointment on Marcus's face. The door swung open to reveal Barnes.

"The bird's prepped." He reported. "Time to go." Too many troops at that base had been Connor's men, directly under his command. Marcus had to transfer to a new battalion if he was going to 'be' John Connor.

Barnes looked from Marcus to Blair, noticing that neither had moved. "Are you two ready?"

"Yeah." Marcus replied, his voice an exact duplicate of John's. He glanced at Blair. "We're ready."

There you have it, my short alternate ending to the film. I'm hoping when the dvd finally gets released that it'll have an alternate ending where Marcus doesn't die. I admit, he very well might have lived, but it appears that he died. (It is possible, I think, that they put John's heart in Marcus and perhaps his hybrid body was able to heal it.)

I also must confess, the inspiration for this ending came from reading that an early version of the Terminator Salvation script had John dying at the end, and his face was surgically placed on Marcus's, who lead the resistance in his stead.

Anyway, leave a review and give me your thoughts on this. I appreciate all input, and constructive criticism is welcome.


End file.
